Strong John Lewis sales cheer high street

John Lewis brought some Christmas cheer to the high street with strong sales during the festive season only days after rival Debenhams became the first major casualty of the trading period.

Total sales at John Lewis rose 7.2 per cent to £734m for the five weeks to December 28, despite heavy discounting across the high street in the run-up to Christmas.

Unlike rival Debenhams - which complained that it had seen no late surge of shopping after it released a profit warning on Tuesday - Andy Street, managing director of John Lewis, said the department store was "packed" on the Monday before Christmas.

John Lewis's strong performance is not necessarily good news for the rest of the high street, which is expected to have had a mixed December.

"We expect to have outperformed the market," Mr Street said.

Weak trading at Debenhams over Christmas triggered a profit warning that wiped 12 per cent off the group's share price, as like-for-like sales rose only 0.1 per cent over the crucial Christmas trading period. Michael Sharp, chief executive of Debenhams, blamed the performance on rampant discounting across the high street.

At John Lewis, online orders provided the bulk of this sales growth, as customers took to shopping via smartphones and tablets. While sales in stores were up 1.2 per cent, sales online jumped 22.6 per cent, year on year.

Mr Street said there was no danger of online sales cannibalising store sales. "The answer to us is that it doesn't matter where the sales come from. What matters is the total to John Lewis," said Mr Street. "If a customer is loyal to John Lewis, they will want to use both channels."

On average customers who shopped both online and in store spent about four times more than customers who used only one channel, Mr Street said.

"Black Friday" - when John Lewis had promotions on its website and in store - brought some sales forward to earlier in the month, but many shoppers left their Christmas shopping later than usual.

In the run-up to Christmas, about half of online orders were "click and collect", which analysts argue will become a necessity for all retailers planning on mixing "bricks and clicks". This was a 60 per cent increase from the previous year.

Britain's growing infatuation with consumer electronics, such as tablets, resulted in a 10.7 per cent sales bump in John Lewis' home technology division. Fashion rose 8.5 per cent, while the home division's sales increased 2 per cent compared with the year before.

Debenhams is expected to part ways with its finance director in the next few days, said people familiar with the matter. Simon Herrick has come under fire after a year that consisted of two profit warnings and a letter demanding a 2.5 per cent discount from suppliers.

Meanwhile, a report from Deloitte said 183 retailers went into administration in 2013, compared with 194 in 2012.

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